The Syracuse men's lacrosse team has questions on faceoffs, an abnormally large number of answers at attack and a pair of new variables in Randy Staats and Mike Iacono.

After a week of practice — and just a few days with the newest member of the Orange — Syracuse head coach John Desko said it's too early to tell how the Orange equation will fall into place.

Iacono practiced for the second time with Syracuse on Tuesday afternoon. Staats, who was officially announced as a member of the team on Monday, has not worked out with the team yet.

With Syracuse's season opener less than a month away, Desko said has plans in place to integrate both players quickly.

Staats, who set a school-record at Onondaga Community College with 156 points last season, will go through early practices at both the midfield and the attack positions, and Desko said he'll attempt to quickly gauge where he belongs, allowing him to eventually focus on learning one position.

"I think it's a lot," Desko said of learning both spots. "The positioning is a little different. The looks are different. In talking to him and some of his coaches, (Staats) seems to be a quick study. We have to figure out who he is in an Orange jersey. We'll try him in two spots but we're going to have to make a decision quickly in where we get him so he can learn at least one of the positions."

Unlike many of SU's offensive players who are expected to learn both midfield and attack in an effort to become interchangeable, Desko said the short amount of learning time before the season will limit Staats to learning just one.

Where Staats lands will help Desko determine how to utilize the rest of his offensive weapons, a group that includes his three leading attackmen from last year, three midfielders who produced good offensive numbers, talented transfer Nicky Galasso and the country's No. 1 recruit, Jordan Evans.

While Desko didn't detail specific roles for other players, he hinted that Evans will start his career in the midfield.

"As we go forward, I think you'll see certain players maybe play midfield their freshman year but might go into attack position their sophomore or junior year," Desko said.

Iacono, meanwhile, joined a group of five other faceoff specialists at midfield of the Carrier Dome when practice began on Tuesday, going through drills with assistant coach Kevin Donahue.

With Syracuse's first scrimmage just 11 days away, Desko hopes to pare down that group quickly.

"There was a big discussion today in the office about getting down from seven to maybe four and figuring it out from there," Desko said. "We're still evaluate (Iacono). We hope (he's a part of it)."

At 6-foot-5, Iacono towered over the other faceoff specialists. Chris Daddio, who is 5-foot-10, said during last week's media day that Iacono is bigger than most faceoff specialists as teams have learned toward getting players with lower centers of gravity.

Despite that, Iacono held his own during the half-hour that the practice was open to the media Tuesday. Both he and Daddio won the majority of their faceoffs as six players rotated through three pairings.

The other returning option, Cal Paduda, was not in pads but spent the open portion of the practice doing conditioning. Other options for the job that Desko has previously mentioned are true freshman Joe DeMarco and walk-on Austin Wentworth.

"We have to get (Iacono) into competition with our guys right away because we have to figure that out," Desko said. "He's only been here a day and a half."